Comments on: Views of Brussels http://www.logophile.org/blog/2007/07/11/views-of-brussels/ blog of a logophile (not "logos", but "λόγος") Thu, 08 Jan 2009 12:06:24 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7 hourly 1 By: tikitu http://www.logophile.org/blog/2007/07/11/views-of-brussels/comment-page-1/#comment-5239 tikitu Thu, 12 Jul 2007 09:00:52 +0000 http://www.logophile.org/blog/?p=289#comment-5239 <p>My feeling for the Dutch (which could be wrong, obviously) is that it combines En. 'obvious' with 'easy' or 'simple' in a particular way, which I don't think I can match in English.</p> <p>On more solid ground, there's certainly nothing in English with a comparable meaning that also wears its etymological heart on its sleeve (so to speak) in the same way. We've got "right in front of your nose" and "under your nose" and similar, but (meaning differences aside) you can't treat them the same way grammatically.</p> <p>(I'm now wondering whether 'eenvoudig' would have been a better choice -- 'simple' probably comes closest in English to what I'm trying for.)</p> <p>And yes, I'm aware this isn't a characterisation. And wow, what an incredible job translators do!</p> My feeling for the Dutch (which could be wrong, obviously) is that it combines En. ‘obvious’ with ‘easy’ or ’simple’ in a particular way, which I don’t think I can match in English.

On more solid ground, there’s certainly nothing in English with a comparable meaning that also wears its etymological heart on its sleeve (so to speak) in the same way. We’ve got “right in front of your nose” and “under your nose” and similar, but (meaning differences aside) you can’t treat them the same way grammatically.

(I’m now wondering whether ‘eenvoudig’ would have been a better choice — ’simple’ probably comes closest in English to what I’m trying for.)

And yes, I’m aware this isn’t a characterisation. And wow, what an incredible job translators do!

]]> By: jacob http://www.logophile.org/blog/2007/07/11/views-of-brussels/comment-page-1/#comment-5238 jacob Wed, 11 Jul 2007 20:58:50 +0000 http://www.logophile.org/blog/?p=289#comment-5238 <p>Ad [1]: so how would you characterize the difference with `obvious'?</p> Ad [1]: so how would you characterize the difference with `obvious’?

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